Veena’s review of Romancing The Scot (Pennington Family, Book 1) by May McGoldrick
Historical Romance published by Swerve 14 Nov 17
This is a delightful romance, which reads like a contemporary romance set in an historical period.
Trouble finds Grace and her father when they arrive in Europe after a long sojourn in the Americas. In escaping from her father’s murderers, Grace finds herself closed up in a crate and shipped off to sea. Imagine Hugh Pennington’s and his sister’s surprise when they uncrate his new hot air balloon and all its accoutrements to find a young woman barely alive, curled up around the contents of the box.
Being that Grace now finds herself in the home of the Lord Justice of Scotland and a survivor of the Napoleonic wars and Grace’s father was one of Napoleon’s leading generals, Grace determines it judicious to pretend to have amnesia. Matters become more dire when she finds that trouble might just have followed her to the wilds of Scotland. It’s interesting to see Grace work to extricate herself from her dilemma.
Grace might understand that she’s in danger in more ways than one and that she’s pretending to have lost her memory, but her passionate nature will not allow her to take a back seat when she sees injustice. She has no qualms about expressing her opinions to Hugh and actually wakes him up to the fact that he might inadvertently have been party to injustice himself. I truly enjoyed the case of the poor deaf and dumb woman imprisoned for the murder of her son who is rotting in jail, until Grace took an interest in her plight and does the research necessary to bring her justice.
A delightful story that comes together really well and introduces us to a host of new characters who will soon be finding their own romances.
Grade: B
Summary:
Hugh Pennington—Viscount Greysteil, Lord Justice of the Scottish Courts, hero of the Napoleonic wars—is a grieving widower with a death wish. When he receives an expected crate from the continent, he is shocked to find a nearly dead woman inside. Her identity is unknown, and the handful of American coins and the precious diamond sown into her dress only deepen the mystery.
Grace Ware is an enemy to the English crown. Her father, an Irish military commander of Napoleon’s defeated army. Her mother, an exiled Scottish Jacobite. When Grace took shelter in a warehouse, running from her father’s murderers through the harbor alleyways of Antwerp, she never anticipated bad luck to deposit her at the home of an aristocrat in the Scottish Borders. Baronsford is the last place she could expect to find safety, and Grace feigns a loss of memory to buy herself time while she recovers.
Hugh is taken by her beauty, passion, and courage to challenge his beliefs and open his mind. Grace finds in him a wounded man of honor, proud but compassionate. When their duel of wits quickly turns to passion and romance, Grace’s fears begin to dissolve…until danger follows her to the very doors of Baronsford. For, unknown to either of them, Grace has in her possession a secret that will wreak havoc within the British government. Friend and foe are indistinguishable as lethal forces converge to tear the two lovers apart or destroy them both.
No excerpt available.
